Chapter 82: An unexpected voyage

[22nd – 24th of Evening Star 4E 202]

On the big day, when the 3G meeting was supposed to happen, all of us – the observation team with the four ladies, my housecarl Valdimar, Hadvar, a few of his soldiers and I – met in the 'Bloated Float Tavern' just before noon. I had publicly announced that my wife and I were celebrating the anniversary of our engagement; while this was off by a day or two, nobody except us knew about it, as nobody else had been around when we had worn our amulets of Mara on that tiny island near Riften, one year ago. We had plans to celebrate our wedding anniversary with family, hopefully back in Kvatch, but the engagement anniversary provided a nice excuse to be with friends. Hopefully, this also served as distraction from the main operation today, although it was quite close to where the '3G' meeting was supposed to take place.

For the event I had booked the tavern for this day. I had made a big show saying that I had left our adopted girls with uncle and aunt and Iona as there was going to be lots of drinking here, and this started quite soon. We had quietly talked to the proprietors, though, to make sure we only got nonalcoholic drinks served; I did not drink hard stuff anyway, and we needed to stay sharp and sober in case we were needed.

During the afternoon, the members of the observation team vanished one by one. They tried to be inconspicuous by going to the restroom or to a storeroom, taking an invisibility potion, and moving out, nor through the main entrance, but up to the deck and down to the water via a rope ladder; we wanted to give the impression that we were all still here. In mid afternoon, the entire observation team was gone, and we continued to talk like nothing had happened. Maybe half an hour later, I was about to tell a story from my past:

"Can you imagine, when my wife and I visited Fort Dawnguard to learn more about the potential vampire threat, there was a young Nord gal with us, and when he was asked which weapon he was familiar with, he replied 'Uh, my weapon? I mostly just use my pa's axe, when wolves are attacking the goats or something.'! Can you imagine that?"

Laughter sounded around me, and I was about to move on to another story, but for some reason I was getting tired and started to yawn. All of a sudden almost everybody around yawned as well, and I was confused by that as evening was not even close yet. Maybe we needed some fresh air in here? I tried to get up and see if a window or door could be opened, but my limbs felt very heavy, and suddenly I had my head resting on my arms for a nap. Well, just a few minutes, and then I should be all right again, I thought, but I did not get a chance to ponder this further, as I actually drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up, darkness was all around me. I started to move, but found my movements blocked; my hands were bound behind me. What? What was going on? We had been pretending to celebrate, and then… Hm, odd. Did somebody drug us, or cast a spell? Had the bandits somehow found out about our plans? We had planned for this celebration to serve as distraction, and maybe this had actually worked. But how had somebody been able to drug us and make us sleep?

Somebody else started to move close to me, and I recognized Hadvar՚s voice:

"I thought that we were getting harmless stuff to drink? And why can't I move?"

There were no other voices, and we did not know where Hadvar՚s soldiers might be.

All of a sudden the door opened, and two men with torches came in. They obviously noticed that our eyes were open, and one of them spoke:

"Ah, you are awake, good. So, speak – where did the Dragonborn go?"

They knew about T'mara? I assumed that they did not really know where the team was, and thus I pretended to suffer from a hangover:

"Oh, please don't speak so loud! My head hurts! And I do not know where she is. She went to the restroom together with one or two of her friends, and I wondered what took them so long, and then I got dizzy…"

Hadvar chimed in: "I think that I also heard them mention that they wanted to go into the city for a girls՚ night or something like that."

"Damn!" one of the men cursed. "Looks like we missed her!"

"But we had the tavern under observation! How could they have slipped out without being seen?" the other man asked.

"She is the Dragonborn" the first one replied. "She sure has her options, be it potions or spells or shouts."

The two left again, seemingly unhappy, and we were left to ourselves. I had no intention to just wait, though, and I asked in a low voice:

"Hadvar, can you turn your back to me so that I can try to work on your bindings?"

He did as I suggested, and although my hands started to get numb from the tight ropes, I managed to touch the soldier's binds and tried to undo them. This was tedious work, and I probably needed twenty minutes or so, but eventually I succeeded. Hadvar needed a few moments to get feeling back into his hands, and then he untied me. The room was almost completely dark, but we managed to locate the door, which was of course locked. I found a few lockpicks hidden in my clothes – I did not have my armor on, but there were a few hiding places in my clothes – and soon the door was unlocked, and we cautiously opened it. We were apparently on the lowest deck, and we heard water gurgling from the ship's bilge which was probably just below us. When me slowly moved towards the stairs, we heard voices from the main taproom above, and we got a few snippets from the conversation; they still talked about the missing team and specifically my wife:

"We searched the entire tavern, and there is indeed no sign of the Dragonborn aboard."

"One of the guys down there, the Imperial Captain, claims that she went to the city to have fun with some of the other girls."

"But we would have seen them leave!"

"Yeah, my view too, but don't you think, as Dragonborn, she has her ways to leave unseen?"

"But she could not when we had her in the ruins under Kvatch!"

"Yes, but there we had a prison cell with magical protection, and this probably prevented her from escaping."

"So, what do we do now?"

"Well, if this is actually true, her being in the city and the soldiers here, it should be okay, and our bosses should be safe in their own meeting."

Very interesting. They had learned about our efforts to observe the '3G' meeting, and they had planned to take us out of the action. Now, what could we do? There were five or six bandits, and we did not have any weapons. Hadvar whispered:

"Let's see if we can find my soldiers and some weapons!"

That was a good idea, and I nodded; hopefully Valdimar was going to be with them, too. We stepped back and searched the other rooms in the lowest deck. I needed to pick more locks, but we found all three of Hadvar՚s soldiers in one room, Valdimar in another one, and a supply of weapons and some armor in a third room. The soldiers were quickly untied, and they took what they needed from the stack of armor and weapons. We slowly moved forward again, and right at this time we heard one of the bandits saying:

"I am checking on the upper deck, to see how far we already got. You two, come with me."

Three of the guys left, and when the door upstairs was closed again, Hadvar, Valdimar and I rushed in. All three of the remaining bandits had a sword to their throat before they could react, and they were bound and gagged. We searched the taproom, and we found three people bound in a small side room – the owner and two of his assistants, who had served our drinks and meal before. We set them free, and I asked the tavern՚s owner:

"The bandit mentioned something about seeing how far we got. Is it possible that we are moving? We can't be, or can we?"

"Well, this old boat is still able to float and sail if needed, and judged by the slight sway I have felt for quite a few hours, yes, we are probably no longer moored."

"Can you get us back?"

"Sure can, but I won't go out while the bandits are up there."

"Right, this is something we will have to do."

We were armed now, and I conjured Pammy. This was right in time, as the door opened and one of the guys came in. Only once the door was closed behind him did he notice that something had changed, but before he could either shout a warning or turn around, Pammy had him down on the floor and he did not dare to utter a sound. He was bound and gagged as well, and we prepared to storm the deck.

Alas, just when we were ready, I was getting dizzy again, and an alarm bell went off in my head. I grabbed Hadvar and stormed off down towards the lower deck, and the effect was less pronounced there. I swallowed a health and stamina potion – fortunately there was a supply around in one of the storerooms we had searched before – and this helped a lot. We could see, though, that the three soldiers and Valdimar, who had been slower to react, were unconscious again. A few minutes later the door from the upper deck opened and two sturdy looking people came down into the taproom, one of them a big female orc and the other a strong looking male Nord.

"We only got four of them! Where are the others?" the orc shouted.

Hadvar, Pammy and I used the opportunity to come out of hiding, and mostly thanks to Pammy, we could overcome the two of them quickly. There was going to be a time for questions later; for now, we bound the two, rushed out to the deck and quickly subdued the two remaining bandits who were busy with running the ship and handling the sail. Once we had made sure that we had not missed anything or someone potentially hiding, the owner came up with his two assistants, looked around, and stated:

"Look at that, they actually managed to get the boat down past Leyawiin! Fortunately we are still close to the coast, and we only need to turn around. Lads! Let's get back to where we belong to!"

The three of them got busy, and a few minutes later the boat was heading back towards the coast. Darkness was all around us, and we could see a bright light – one of the sailors explained that this was from the Leyawiin lighthouse – in one direction. The sailor also explained that the bandits had used the low tide to quickly get out to the sea, whereas we could now take advantage of the starting high tide to get back, supported by favorable winds.

I guess we could consider ourselves lucky that the tavern assistants still were trained as sailors and could actually handle the boat. When we had passed Leyawiin again, northbound, the sun came up, and one of the sailors told me:

"You know, we actually do take our floating tavern out sometimes, when customers pay for it. Rich people can book us for a tour, if they want, like for a nobleman's birthday. Happens about once a month or so, and we get extra pay."

"I am glad that you know how to run the boat" I replied. "How long do you think it will take us to get back?"

"Getting out was quicker, downstream and with the tide. Fortunately, the high tide helps to push us back now, and I guess that we should be back at mooring mid afternoon."

Meanwhile Hadvar and his soldiers had searched and questioned the bandits, and while they did not talk much, it became clear that they had planned to hijack our entire party, with the Dragonborn. T'mara and the others leaving while being invisible had apparently escaped them. One of them had been sent to report to the bosses, just before the boat floated out.

That was comforting. The '3G' would assume that our entire party was hijacked and out for a few days at least, and they would not suspect being observed; thus, maybe our team would have a good chance to observe and watch, or rather, they might have on the day before. At this time, they'd probably be quite worried with the tavern boat gone and no trace of us.

Meanwhile, we passed Bravil and continued to sail north, towards the Imperial City. At lunch time, a snack was served, but I barely ate – I was quite concerned about my wife and her companions, not knowing if they had been successful. Had they had been in danger, like we had been? Had the bandits outsmarted them or had they been able to observe as planned?

Eventually, though, we did make it back. We passed under the high bridge connecting the Ring Road southeast of the Imperial City, and half an hour later we were docked again. Three city guards waited there, and we talked to them right away. None of the observation team was here, and one of the guards addressed Hadvar:

"Sir, it's good to see you back. We were all quite concerned yesterday when the inn was suddenly gone, and nobody knew why and whereto. As ordered, we did not have any observation posts nearby to avoid suspicion, and only some posts further away reported that they had seen a small ship leaving, but it was getting dark."

"What about the observation team?" I cut in.

"The team made it back to the legion headquarters to report, and as far as I know, they were successful."

"And where are they now?"

Right as I had completed my question, I noticed two people running along the quay, and when they came close, I recognized my wife and her cousin. They had apparently seen the inn boat back, and T'mara rushed right into my wide open arms, slinging her arms and legs around me and kissing me wildly.

Hadvar and the guards smiled, and the good captain commented:

"One day I hope that I also find a woman who greets me like this after a day of separation."

T'mara was obviously not in the mood for reporting, so that we just decided to move back to the headquarters together; we had something to report as well, after all. Hadvar gave a few orders to the guards, regarding the captured bandits on the boat; we took our leave from the proprietor and his assistants, and off we went.

My wife refused to leave my arms for the entire way, and I ended up carrying her all the way across the city. Not that I minded; she was a sweet and light load, and her smell helped a lot to get back some peace of mind after the adventure we had been through. My housecarl Valdimar separated from us, and he was going back to my parents and extended family to let them know we were safe.

Back in the large meeting room we had been in a few days ago, we found a few of the others already waiting, and they were quite happy to see Hadvar, me, and the others back. We gave a quick report of what had happened to us, and then Selina told us what the observation team had done and learned:

"T'mara, M'lissa, the Bosmer and I had managed to leave the tavern without being detected. A sneaky member of the local Thieves Guild joined us and lead us into an underground area, with a confusing network of passages. Eventually, when we were reminded to be very quiet, we stepped into a small dark room, and the two Khajiit ladies guided us towards one of the walls; their nightsight ability allowed us to navigate the room without lighting a torch or something like that, which might have given us away. There were a few very small holes in the wall, and they were mostly covered by some plants, too, so that our view was severely limited. That was not too much of an issue, though, as we hoped to listen mostly."

"So, you heard something interesting?"

"Indeed, we did. At first, there were just some greetings, and we could not really see much. The large room we could look down to was only dimly lit, and our view was very much restricted, too. However, we could recognize the 'Grey Brugo', the same we had seen before in that cave east of Kvatch, when we had looked for the Crystal of Julianos."

"Did the other two bosses also show up?"

They did, and they were called 'Grey Badger' and 'Grey Beaver' by the others. It took some time until the initial greetings and chars were over, but then the talks got quite interesting. They did say something about getting people out of the way – I guess that this was a reference to what they did to the inn you were in – and then they mentioned a big coup they were planing and preparing."

"That's almost like we expected, isn't it? Did they mention details?"

They did, and it appears like they really were sure about not being observed. They obviously did not have a clue that we were so close and could understand almost every word. We got confirmation that the Grey Brugo's lair is indeed in the ruins of Telepe, as we had suspected earlier, but there were no clear hints towards the headquarters of the two other bandit bosses. At this time, though, there is something else to be concerned about – they are going to start a big mission to rob the Arcane University."

"Why that? I don't think that there are big riches found there."

"No, but they have a contract with somebody, or rather with a group of people, and those are going to pay a lot of money."

"Who is going to pay lots of money to get the Arcane University robbed? How does this make sense?"

"It makes sense as soon as you learn who is paying: The Thalmor."

"What?"

We were stunned and silent for a few moments, and Legate Brittia explained:

"Since we learned about about that, we have thought about the motive, and we came up with two at least: One, they are going to discredit the security there. Two, they can get all powerful artifacts and spell tomes removed."

"Okay, slow down. I understand the issue about discrediting. It will look bad if the might mages cannot even prevent burglary at their coveted place. But why stealing stuff?"

"Actually, that appears to make sense" I chimed in now. "When I was in the ruins under Kvatch, I joined with a battlemage from the legion for some time, and I learned that the Thalmor seem to have a tight control on the university. Ideally they'd want to shut the place down entirely, but this may be above and beyond their authority here, and they also realize that there needs to be one place at least to get magic talents educated and their activities channeled. According to what I learned from the battlemage, though, the Thalmor do not shy away from killing mages who become too powerful from their point of view."

"What?" was Hadvar՚s reply. "The Thalmor really do this? Is this proven?"

"No, it is not really proven, according to what I have been told. I have heard that they always try to make it look like an accident, like having a mage be part of a team to explore a ruin, and an unfortunate accident happens."

"Actually, this matches what we have learned yesterday" Selina now added. "The '3G' talked about those things, too, and they mentioned that they learned more about the Thalmor activities than intended."

"I had no idea" the captain replied. "I know that the Thalmor used to be our enemies, but I thought that we have some kind of peaceful co-existence nowadays. I would never have suspected that they are basically still at war with us, even in a clandestine way."

"And that's not all" M'lissa chimed in. "Imagine that we somehow find proof and can uncover the Thalmor activities to the public. Will they just admit their crimes and behave in future? Or is there rather a significant risk that they find some excuses to declare the White-Gold Concordat violated by us and return to open warfare once more?"

Legate Brittia nodded: "Good point, indeed, and that risk has also limited some of our activities in the past. We need to make sure that such a thing is not going to happen. The Thalmor and the Aldmeri Dominion are not ready yet for another war, but neither are we."

"But what can we do?"

M'lissa offered: "We need to be even more sneaky than them, of course. We probably cannot afford to expose their schemes to the public, at least not fully, but we can make life harder for them; much harder. And, we can also prepare traps."

"Such as?"

"Such as mentioning some new and interesting parts of ruins not found before, with new spell tomes, artifacts, and something like that. That will entice them to have a few of their group get there, together with mages and guards, and it will be our turn to prepare an unfortunate accident. I can just see an edition of the Black Horse Courier stating something like this: 'A few days ago explorers uncovered a new section in the Ayleid ruin of, whatever fits here. A group of Thalmor volunteered to assist our exploration team, and together they delved into the newly found depths. Down there they encountered an unprecedented number of wraiths, and the Thalmor fought valiantly to protect the lives of the adventurers and mages, but eventually succumbed. However, they managed to allow most of the team to escape.' What about that?"

"Hm, something like this might actually work. But, do we have more details on the heist being planned?"

M'lissa nodded and elaborated:

"Indeed, we do. It's going to happen day after tomorrow, before dawn. They are going to stage multiple events in parallel. There is going to be a major distraction with some bandits pretending to fight just outside of the university gates, expected to get some of the mages out to stop the fight. Another distraction is planned by a group climbing over the walls, but the main attack is going to happen from underground, via the sewers."

"They can enter the university ground from the sewers?"

"They can, yes. There are sewer entrances everywhere in the city, and the Arcane University is no exception. Of course, the mages know about that, and they have protected those entrances with strong magical seals. Normal bandits would never be able to pass those, but they mentioned help they are getting."

"Let me guess – Thalmor?"

M'lissa nodded: "Yep, a group of Thalmor wizards is prepared to disable the magical wards around two of those entrances, allowing two groups of bandits to enter the university grounds. Two of the 3G will lead those groups, while the third one is going to be with the distraction group coming across the walls."

"So, if we are smart enough, we may be able to arrest all of those groups on the grounds of burglary, giving us enough time to uncover some of their other crimes?"

"That's about it, yes" Legate Brittia nodded.

"What are we going to do with the Thalmor?"

"And how can we get soldiers and guards into the university without the bandits noticing?"

"The second part is easy: We also use a sewer access."

"But we will need to have the wards broken, won't we?"

"We have a group of battlemages with the legion, and they are certainly qualified to do that. I have already talked to their leader, and when he learned about the situation, he assured me that they will be disabling the wards temporarily for us, and the whole group of them is going to join us. As soon as the university mages see Imperial Battlemages fighting against bandits, they will know exactly which side is the good one and join in."

We discussed some more details, and eventually the meeting was at an end. T'mara and I went to the Aboretum and spend the rest of the day and the next day with family. In the evening prior to the event, we asked uncle and aunt again to spend time with the girls on the next day, and they agreed willingly.

[Author's Notes: The events in the 'Bloated Float Tavern' remind of the quest 'An unexpected voyage' in 'TES IV Oblivion', and that's where I got the idea from. Naturally, this event assumes the citiy Leyawiin actually allows a small ship like that to pass, which seems doubtful in the vanilla TES IV game.

Ted Hsu: As you suggested to add a woman named 'Samantha' backed by a group called 'Samsung' to make the bandit gang a more modern '5G' rather than '3G', maybe there should be a rival gang 'Apple' lead by some 'Anthony' or 'Steven' or so? Could be fun, but I am not going in this direction.

By the way, I am already planing the end of the story, most likely with 9x chapters – 'x' not yet determined. If you have some ideas or requests what our heroes should do and wrap up once they are back in Skyrim, please do let me know!]